1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel livestock identification tag of the type which is mounted in an animal's ear. More specifically the tag comprises a planar member having a body and a neck which extends outwardly from the body and which is inserted through an animal's ear; and a tab member which locks onto the terminal end of the neck to retain the tag in position.
The novel tag is particularly well suited for use as a cattle marker, although its use is not limited thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most prior art ear-type livestock identification tags are constructed and mounted such that the tag face is parallel to the length of the ear. Such a tag is exemplified in Ritchey Canadian Patent No. 844,828, issued June 23, 1970.
Two problems are commonly encountered with prior art ear-type livestock identification tags. Firstly, it is usual to insert a tag through an animal ear in a spot midway or further from the head and, in order to minimize accidental pull-out of the tag, in a position inward of the ear edge. With cattle, it is in fact common to insert the tag in a space lying between cartilages which essentially run the length of a cow's ear. A tag so positioned is often difficult to read because the tag face lies against the ear and hair may curl over all or part of the tag face, and because the midportion to outer end of a cow's ear moves about considerably when the animal twitches the ears. Secondly, even though an effort is made to minimize accidental tag pull-out by placing the tag between ear cartilages, there is still a substantial amount of tag loss since the tag is mounted in a relatively thin portion of the ear, when taken in cross-section, and since the further the placement of the tag from the head the greater the likelihood of the tag engaging fencing or other entanglements as the tagged cow searches for greener pastures.